HIGHLIGHTS

Samsung Galaxy S8 mass production has begun

Samsung aims to ship over 10 million units in two months

The smartphone is set to launch on March 29

Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are scheduled to launch on March 29 this month, and rumours have picked up pace. The latest leak confirms that the devices have already reached mass production stage, and the company targets to make more than 10 million units available in the initial phase. Further, the large Samsung Galaxy S8+ was also spotted on GeekBench reiterating the addition of the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset.

South Korean site Naver reports that Samsung looks to sell over 10 million handsets of its upcoming Galaxy S8 in the initial months. Samsung will not prioritise South Korea this time, and will launch the handset globally across markets almost at the same time, i.e. soon after launch on March 29. The company is already behind schedule due to the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, and had to skip the MWC launch that it traditionally prefers.

To make up for it, Samsung is reportedly preparing for a global launch now, and the mass production of Galaxy S8 has already begun in its production unit in Vietnam. It is expected to ship 4.7 million handsets in March, and another 7.8 million units in April. This amounts to a total of 12.5 million units of production in the initial months itself. There is no clarity on the ratio of production between the two size variants, whether the larger one will get more preference or the small one. The only difference between the two is expected to be display and battery.

Separately, the Samsung Galaxy S8+ was also spotted on GeekBench (model number SM-G955U) with a good multi-core performance, however losing to Apple’s A10 chip in single-core test. In the lisitng, the Samsung Galaxy S8+ is also tipped to pack 4GB RAM and run on Android 7.0 Nougat.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are expected to feature large dual-edged curved displays with no Home Buttons or navigation buttons in the front. There’s also the integration of Bixby digital assistant with a dedicated button, and some form of 3D Touch functionality is also tipped.